Steam users rally around developer who has never ‘experienced love’

If you’re reading this, chances are good that you haven’t heard of Tiny Snow, a visual novel that is only available in Chinese via Steam. But the anime game is making a splash with English speakers who can’t understand what the game says, all because of a sad tale shared by the developer.

A screenshot shared by a currently suspended Twitter account went viral this week, which purported to show an exchange between the creator of Tiny Snow and a critic who didn’t enjoy the game’s story. According to this image, the developer explained that his crack at depicting love in the game wasn’t very good because he’d never had the privilege of experiencing the emotion before.

BigBootyWitches/Twitter

The tweet exploded, amassing thousands of shares on the social media site. Some people were so moved by the story that they actually went out and purchased the game on Steam to support the developer. If you visit Tiny Snow’s page right now, the top reviews are all largely by English-language speakers who can’t even understand the game. For them, it doesn’t matter, though. People just want to show the developer that he’s not alone in his love woes.

Valve via Polygon

Valve via Polygon

“I can’t read Chinese, but I bought this game to support the developer who I think a lot of people can relate to,” Steam user Bad Man wrote in a review of Tiny Snow.

“To the developer, with all the effort I can see put into this game, anybody would be lucky to have such a creative partner,” he continued. “Keep writing in an honest way and maybe if this game takes off, it’ll be easier for people to see your merit. Hope you find love someday soon. Sending you good luck from the United States.”

It’s all very sweet, but according to the developer, folks got his story kinda wrong. In a news announcement posted on Steam a couple of days ago, the developer thanks his fans for all their encouragement, but says that he hopes that people enjoy the game more than they might relate to him specifically.

“Actually, I am not so miserable,” he wrote. “My experience has been exaggerated because of translation problems. I would rather the players love the game than sympathize with me. (￣▽￣”) My English is poor, but I will try to understand your comments.”

Even with this warning, players are still expressing plenty of encouragement for the developer’s love life in the comments to the clarification.

“Although you may have been through some tough times, the community will always be here to look out for you, no matter what!” said Steam user Artlu ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ.